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This time last year, most of us were winding down our work year and looking forward to taking a much-needed break from the demands of work and life in general. Little did we know that a storm was brewing in the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the criminal underworld, one that would take our entire country into a new dimension, eventually exposing us to the systemic and governance weaknesses of an important component of our criminal justice system.
From the evidence we’ve so far heard in the Madlanga commission and the parliamentary ad hoc committee established to probe allegations made in July by KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, of police corruption and political interference, we are clearer about the woeful state of our police and should be worried if nothing comes of the two probes.
On Wednesday, the same day that the commission handed over its interim report reflecting on its first three months, the community of Brakpan in Ekurhuleni held a funeral for a witness who had only weeks prior appeared before it. The killing of former Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) official-turned-private-security-operative Marius van der Merwe on 5 December sparked shock as in early November he had testified in camera, reportedly having refused witness protection.
Van der Merwe’s testimony implicates suspended acting EMPD chief Brigadier Julius Mkhwanazi in maintaining ties to the criminal underworld by associating with dodgy characters involved in hijacking and drug smuggling. He further implicated him in defeating the ends of justice by ordering that the body of a suspect in a truck hijacking incident be disposed of in a local dam.
The interim report of the commission will not be made public, so we are not at this point privy to any pronouncements it may contain on the topic of whistle-blower protection for its witnesses. Van der Merwe was known in the public records of the inquiry as Witness D, indicating that he was the fourth in-camera witness to appear. The first three are police investigators for whom a threat risk assessment revealed that they were severely vulnerable. They have since been placed in witness protection. More on this later.
Police irregularities exposed
The presidency has said that the reason for withholding the report is that the commission is still to hear more evidence across its numerous work streams and will therefore not have made conclusions on them that can be made public.
Naturally, the public is curious about what is so far contained in the report, and consequently what accountability will look like for those who have been implicated in corruption and undue interference in police operations at national and local levels. Furthermore, the public’s concerns extend to an integral issue ventilated during the commission and the committee: meaningful protection for whistle-blowers. What they conclude in the end will hopefully inform the much-anticipated whistle-blower legislation which is currently being amended and on which government is expected to invoke public comments in 2026.
The commission and the committee feature high up in the big news stories of 2025, albeit having only started with their proceedings in September and October respectively. Their genesis is the media conference held by Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi in early July in which he first made public allegations of corruption against some in SAPS leadership, placing then-police minister Senzo Mchunu at the centre. He accused Mchunu of using his position to scupper the efforts of the political killings task team (PKTT) and the SAPS intelligence division as it got close to uncovering criminal activity of underworld characters close to him.
Mchunu’s intent on shutting down the PKTT after six years of its existence came about abruptly, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said, because of his links to criminal syndicates. During the evidence heard before the commission from him and crime intelligence head and PKTT project lead Lieutenant-General Dumisani Khumalo, among others, a picture has formed of a cartel in which controversial businessmen Katiso Molefe and Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala are active members.
The two were identified in separate PKTT investigations – with the help of the Gauteng Crime Intelligence Operations (GCI Ops) – and subsequently confronted in early December 2024. Molefe was arrested on 6 December on suspicion of ordering the assassination in April 2024 of Armand Swart – an engineer in a private company in Vereeniging in the South of Johannesburg – because he (wrongly, as it turned out) suspected that he was the whistle-blower in a procurement-for-goods corruption probe by Transnet in which Itumeleng Molefe, his nephew, was implicated. Three other suspects had already been charged prior to his arrest.
Matlala, on the other hand, was identified through a threat risk assessment after GCI Ops established that the officials investigating the Swart murder were under severe threat. Khumalo testified before the commission that Matlala’s profile surfaced before them in a counter-intelligence probe into the possible syndicate to which Molefe and his co-accused may be linked.
Outlandish claims debunked
Mchunu has so far consistently distanced himself from both men, maintaining that his decision to disband the task team was rather informed by other factors, including the financial sustainability of the team, along with a more strategic plan to expand it nationally. He centred his defence around this rationale when he appeared before the commission earlier this month, but each was thoroughly explored and arguably successfully debunked by evidence leader Adv Mahlape Sello, upsetting the core of his defence strategy.
Mchunu has so far not been given a chance to answer to his association with Brown Mogotsi, another controversial figure who began to give evidence before the commission and is expected back in the new year. Mogotsi too is described as a businessman based in the North West, with strong ties to the ANC and, by his own admission, to Mchunu. He has claimed to be an intelligence operative with intentions of assisting in the investigation of Matlala’s alleged corrupt activities.
Probed on the evidence of Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that Mogotsi alerted him by text to an internal plot to bring him down using an investigation he led in KwaZulu-Natal, Mogotsi told the commission that Mkhwanazi piqued his interest because he had previously investigated his alleged influence in the protection of Israeli interests, subsequently discovering that Mkhwanazi has links with US intelligence body the CIA. His testimony too was torn apart by chief evidence leader Adv Matthew Chaskalson before it was paused until a date that is still to be determined.
Intricate web of cronies
When Matlala was summoned to appear before the ad hoc committee, he dropped bombs of his own while also distancing himself from Mchunu. Instead, the minister he testified to have developed a quid pro quo relationship with is Mchunu’s predecessor, Bheki Cele. Matlala claims to have paid Cele as much as R500 000 to date in return for his influence in sinking the investigations against him – these included the GCI Ops probe into his cartel involvement and the non-payment in respect of his contract to provide medical and wellness services to the SAPS through one of his companies, Medicare24. The contract, valued at R360-million when it was awarded in July 2024, came under scrutiny just months later, and was suspended and later terminated.
While Matlala is currently imprisoned and awaiting trial for an unrelated charge, the alleged attempted murder of his former girlfriend, he is also under investigation for the disappearance of his friend and, by his own admission, former business associate Jerry Boshoga, a well-known and alleged drug kingpin from Pretoria.
The GCI Ops investigation into his activities led to the seizure of firearms belonging to his security firm, CAT VIP Protection, for ballistics testing amid suspicion that they may have been used in assassinations similar to that of Swart. Incidentally, CAT VIP is also the subject of an investigation relating to the EMPD, having allegedly infiltrated its operations without being properly vetted. This anomaly, the commission has heard, came about at the behest of Julius Mkhwanazi, who himself could have been sanctioned for his actions, had it not been for former Ekurhuleni city manager Imogen Mashazi protecting him.
Julius Mkhwanazi admitted to having a “brotherly” relationship with Matlala outside of his professional role at EMPD, in which the latter would occasionally “help out” with cash where necessary. In fact, he told the commission, Matlala once promised to recruit him should the R360-million contract be a success – this against the backdrop of other evidence that CAT VIP has over the years recruited former SAPS special forces members. Julius Mkhwanazi, however, denied that the favours and promises were made with the expectation of Matlala getting business from EMPD.
While Matlala also denied dubious links the EMPD, he admitted to being approached by Mogotsi, purportedly on behalf of Mchunu, with offers of help to remove any obstacles he may experience with the SAPS regarding his contract and the firearms investigation. In return for the help, Mogotsi received amounts of up to R150 000 over time for favours, among these the financing of the travel and accommodation of a group of North West-based ANC members heading to the party’s birthday celebrations in Cape Town in January.
Whistle-blowers remain vulnerable
Amid the accusations and denials, it is with the compendium of evidence led so far across the two investigations that the urgency of accountability and protection of those who bring credible information forward be prioritised for the benefit of our society.
While those actively involved in the PKTT continue to defend its stance and its achievements both in resolving the narrow scope of political killings for which it was formed, and the subsequent intelligence-driven operations that have seen it secure arrests, they also concede that it cannot exist indefinitely. A strategic approach to its expansion and longer-term roll out is necessary if South Africa is to fight and win against organised crime and its consequences that include witness intimidation and murder, bribery of police officials, and others.
